


Clashing Personalities

by afteriwake



Series: Unpredictable [2]
Category: CSI: NY, House M.D.
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-19
Updated: 2012-09-19
Packaged: 2017-11-14 13:50:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/515874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>While she can understand why he's there, there's something about Danny Messer that rubs her the wrong way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Clashing Personalities

**Author's Note:**

> Written for **7_crossovers** Theme Set #2 ( _Cliches_ ), prompt #6 (" _Stone-Deaf_ "). Cameron's a little more bitchy in this than she is on the show, I know, but there's a reason behind this that'll come out later.

Within three days she determined she didn't like Danny Messer. Not at all. Sure, she could admire the way he was there for his brother; out of the last four days he'd only left once and another cop named Detective Mac Taylor had come up to stay with Louie, keep watch over him. He'd been there that morning, only leaving after Detective Taylor arrived. And only then did she get some of those nagging questions answered, and she really didn't like what she'd heard.

Louie Messer had been in a gang called the Tanglewood Boys. When he was in it there'd only been three members. One night, they killed a man and dumped him in Giants Stadium; she vaguely remembered reading an article in the newspaper about that. Some piece of evidence had linked Danny to the crime and his brother had risked everything to clear him...including his life. Apparently, his brother had tried extremely hard to keep Danny out of the gang; so hard that they spent fifteen years barely speaking to each other.

So she had to wonder if he was there because he felt guilty or something like that; of course, if that was the case, then she could relate. She knew how it felt to stay with someone because you felt guilty.

Detective Taylor told her other things because she asked. She wanted to know about Danny, about what made him tick. He didn't tell her a lot about the detective, but enough that she got the impression that he was a guy who used his heart more than his head in a lot of cases. That wasn't only a bad thing for a CSI (which she found out was what he was), it was also a bad thing for the families of the patients at her hospital.

A person who won't listen to reason, who won't think logically, is not a great help. Especially if that person has been trained _to_ think logically; throw logic out the window and you never know what could happen.

She found herself brooding in the office after talking with Danny's boss. Over the last week, she'd realized that she didn't think of Danny as Detective Messer or Mr. Messer; she thought of him as Danny. Sometimes he'd make small talk, but most of the time he'd glare at her in silence as she checked vitals and took more samples and tried to figure out what the hell had happened. More often than not, he tuned out whatever it was she said and kept talking to his brother, as if it didn't matter that she was there or not.

She was not used to feeling that her presence didn't matter when she was helping a patient. Yes, she understood that not every family wanted to get involved in knowing every step of the diagnostics regime, but the man had been there for three days straight, and it seemed as if he didn't care about specifics.

He, apparently, just wanted a miracle.

She got up, only to see Chase standing in the doorway. "What?" she asked flatly.

"Your detective is back. He has a few questions he wants to ask, but he didn't want to leave to find you."

"And what were you doing over there?"

"My patient is in the room over," Chase said defensively. "You really must not be paying attention these days."

She sighed and hung her head slightly. "Maybe this is too much to take on by myself."

"Foreman's done all the neurological work-ups he could do. He's stable; if he can hold out until House gets back, maybe your detective will get what he wants."

Something Chase had said not once but twice in this conversation had caused her to want to grit her teeth. She headed to the door and stood face to face with him. "He's not _my_ detective," she said acidly.

"My apologies," Chase said simply, moving out of the way.

\---

He hadn't had time to take off the suit. _Damn court cases,_ he thought to himself. _Family emergency comes up and as much as you want to tell the DA to go fuck off, it doesn't matter in the end._

He was tired, and sore from sleeping on that cot. Stella had offered to go up and take Mac's place for the next day so he could get some real sleep, but Danny had declined. He did drop in to see his parents, though. They'd changed so much. He knew he'd been the preferred son, mostly because they knew he wasn't going to end up dead because of who he hung out with and what he did. Now he knew Louie had known that, too. But still...part of him hated to see that his parents, while torn up about what happened to their oldest son, just couldn't handle any more. He hadn't even bothered to go back to his apartment and change...he just left New York as quickly as he could to get back to the hospital.

Which meant it was up to him. Mac had said to take as long as he needed to, but he just wanted Louie to get better. And he wanted to get back to work so he could take some of this anger and frustration out on scum who deserved it...not people like Dr. Cameron. He hadn't yelled, hadn't done anything like that, but he'd basically treated her like it didn't matter that she was there. He knew from experience that working hard to fix a problem and not getting an acknowledgement hurt like a bitch, only at this point he realized he hadn't really cared. Maybe he should--

Cameron walked in and stared. Not at Louie, who looked the same as he had for the last four days with the exception that his eyes were closed. No, she was looking at Danny in a suit, looking very different than the man she'd been seeing the last few days.

"What?" he asked with a slightly accusatory tone.

"Nothing," she mumbled, going over to Louie to check his vitals again.

"Look, I have some questions. And I want the truth, all right?"

Cameron shook her head. Why in the hell did she think she'd lie to him? "You'll get the truth. I don't lie to patients _or_ their families, not if I can help it."

"So you do lie, just not all the time," he asked crossing his arms. She suddenly got the feeling that she _never_ wanted to be interrogated by this man.

"If it'll give a patient hope without endangering their life then yes, I'll lie to them."

"And their families?"

"Like I said, I don't like to lie. I do it only if I'm backed into a corner. And how did we get on this topic anyway?" She pretended to think for a moment. "Oh, I remember. You told me you wanted the truth," she replied, her voice raising slightly.

"Well, that's what I want," he said, his voice getting more annoyed. "The plain, simple truth."

"You want it? Here it is: your brother's stable. He's not in the best condition, and neurology work-ups aren't showing any problems. We're still running tests--"

"It seems like all you ever _do_ is run tests," Danny muttered.

"As a scientist you should know that's the only way you get answers!" Cameron snapped.

Danny glared at her slightly. "So I see Mac told you I'm a CSI. What else did he tell you?" he asked quietly in a tone of voice that made her wonder why the hell she had picked a fight with this man in the first place because she knew she was bound to lose.

"He told me about your brother. He told me about you. I asked, he replied." She put her hands on her hips and looked at him.

Danny walked up to her. It wasn't a menacing walk, but by the time he got in front of her she started to feel uncomfortable. "Listen, _doctor,_ " he said quietly. "Just so you know, I'm planning on staying here until Louie gets up to the point where he used to be. You want to know something, ask me next time."

"Fine. Why are you in a suit?" she asked before she realized the words had tumbled out of her mouth.

"Testified in court today on a rape and murder case. Didn't have time to change."

"Why are you so insistent on staying here?" This time, she actually thought about the question she was asking before she asked it.

"Because it's partly my fault he's here." He eased off a little, and she could see that guilty look cross his face again. She felt the pang of sympathy mixed in with all the other feelings she had towards him pop up again.

"Why can't your parents come up to keep watch?"

He just looked at her for a moment, then turned around and walked back to the chair. He didn't give her an answer, just pretended she hadn't asked the question. After another moment of waiting decided it was time to leave.

"They can't stand to see him like this." She stopped at the doorway. "They were there most of the time before this happened. I was working, I didn't get to see him unless I had a day off, and half the time I got called in. Mom didn't want to leave him alone. I don't want to leave him alone, either, and they just can't handle this any more."

She too a step towards him. "Look, I'm...sorry. I didn't mean to pick a fight earlier."

Her apology went unnoticed, or perhaps he didn't feel the need to reply. She sighed and walked out the doorway again, leaving him to his own thoughts. He only looked up once she'd left the room, and then turned back to his brother.

"You know, no matter what I do I'm still an ass, aren't I?" He got no response from his brother, nor had he expected one. "Shit. I need to make it a point not to take this anger out on everyone else, or else I'm going to drive everyone here insane. Maybe myself, first." He glanced back at the doorway. "Or maybe her," he said, not looking at Louie but instead looking at Dr. Cameron standing by the nurses desk. When he turned back to Louie, he was nodding. "Yeah, probably her first."


End file.
